The Swasthya Slate packs a remarkable amount of electronics within a single diagnostic device. The Slate can take an electrocardiogram, monitor urine, and diagnose a range of serious conditions, all for a tiny fraction of the cost of traditional machines. Moreover, the Slate's simple interface enables low-skilled technicians to use the device, and communication with central servers allows for decision-support algorithms to recommend potentially appropriate treatments for patients being diagnosed.

There is no remarkable new technology in the Slate. Indeed, that's partly the point. Through packaging off-the-shelf parts in a straightforward-to-use package, the Slate aims for low-cost simplicity. The accuracy of its readings is reportedly 99% as good as far more expensive machines. Yet the way regulation, purchasing, and usage of these devices occurs in developed economies precludes the Slate's usage there. Instead, the Slate has been invented and is being rolled out in India. Read the Forbes article to learn more about the device and the disruptive innovation it represents.

The fallout from Wal-Mart's corruption scandal in Mexico -- $20 billion in market value lost in 2 days -- illustrates the perils of navigating foreign business practices poorly. Too often, advice about corruption in emerging markets comes in extreme varieties: avoid it entirely, or take on a local partner and embrace the system. The reality is that companies can laregly steer clear of corrupt practices, and they should if they intend to build businesses for the long-term...but it isn't easy. In this piece for Forbes, I explore how we handled these challenges at the pan-African cellular network Celtel, and how other firms have dealt with them far more effectively than Wal-Mart seems to have done.

Italy's Piaggio is a 127-year-old firm with a proud heritage and iconic global brands such as the Vespa scooter. Companies with such deep roots often have trouble adjusting to an emerging market, yet Piaggio has succeeded through creating a new market segment and targeting mid-sized countries. I interviewed Costantino Sambuy, the head of Piaggio's efforts, about what approaches worked. Read more in my piece for Forbes.

Research in Motion (RIM, maker of the BlackBerry) once disrupted the telecom industry through building a new market that the incumbents ignored. Today it is in the ironic position of being disrupted itself. The company's seeming solution -- doubling-down on serving highly demanding enterprise customers with its traditional business model -- is looking ill-fated. There are two alternatives for RIM to pursue. As with any company in an Innovator's Dilemma, these choices involve some short-term pain. Yet they also open doors to new sources of fast growth, and they would create ways to compete asymmetrically against firms trying to eat the company's lunch. Read more in my post at Forbes.

As much as Apple seems to surge from strength to strength, it's had only middling success in emerging markets. The company has recently begun to target these new markets in a more concerted way, and rumours abound of a new, relatively inexpensive iPhone coming to support this strategy. Watch out. For all of Apple's attention to creating elegant technical systems, it will need to pay equal attention to crafting business systems essential for success in these environments. Read about the coming struggles in my post at Forbes.

Minute Maid Pulpy Super Milky may be not only the world's most awkwardly-named consumer product, but also one of its worst tasting. This glutinous, fruit-flavored milk sits heavily on the tongue. In China, it's a hit. Consumer products in emerging markets can baffle people with Western tastes, yet they represent enormous potential. For instance, there are 420 million consumers in India's cities alone, spending $160 billion a year on consumable items, a figure that is growing by over 5% per annum. For consumer products companies, cracking the code that makes Pulpy Super Milky a success is a business imperative. ​Five rules, corresponding to the five elements of a business model, offer guidance:

It is depressing to Google "health insurance innovation." Most links involve rants against a powerful industry, while some make equally spurious claims that public payers such as Medicare have played a scant role in healthcare innovation. There is far too little published about how a huge industry has actually innovated, and still less about what it can do now in response to the major innovation challenges posed by U.S. health reform. This industry's tough situation, and its potential responses, offer lessons for innovators in many other fields.​Due to a variety of provisions in health reform (more formally, the U.S. Patient Protection and Accountable Care Act), the old business model of health insurance is seriously threatened. Plans will become more consistent in their minimum levels of benefits, reduce the ways in which they diverge in pricing, and list their features on an online Health Insurance Exchange. Many will need to reduce their marketing and administrative expenditures. In short, the old ways of doing business will become seriously commoditized. The health insurance industry was not particularly attractive to begin with (operating margins under 5% are the norm), so there is a big need to re-think the business model.

It has become perversely fashionable to beat up on America's capability to compete vs. China. The U.S. government is often seen as too short-sighted and timid to bolster American capabilities in key sectors critical for the 21st century. By contrast, China seems to be the entrepreneurial visionary. Yet in at least in two very high-profile fields, the conventional wisdom seems dead wrong.​Energy firms such as GE have lavishly praised China for investing big money in making the country the global leader in renewable technologies such as solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. While there are definitely worthy aspects of China's energy policy -- such as its clarity in how things are regulated and what government's position will be over the long-term -- much of the government's funding has gone to sudsidize as much as half the cost of installing renewables. Unsurprisingly, this spending has quickly made China the world's biggest renewables market. The large local market, strong local talent, and generous financing has led to China also becoming the global leader in new markets such as solar PV manufacturing.

Moving into services has become a hot business strategy. Consider just some recent examples:

Intel is purchasing security firm McAfee for over $7.6 billion, aiming to integrate its chips with McAfee's software and services to constantly monitor new threats

Ford is enabling customized configurations of its cars' software, which could range from transmission preferences to music, GPS software and much more

Nokia spent over $8 billion to purchase a single company specializing in mapping software, and has supplemented that move with big spending on buying and developing other software and services to differentiate its handsets

Procter & Gamble has created a string of car washes branded "Mr. Clean" in an attempt to move into this highly fragmented, $35 billion industry

Scotts has moved its lawn care brand into the lawn services franchise industry

The list goes on and on. Across a wide range of traditionally product-oriented industries -- medical devices, chemicals, high-tech, and more -- companies have moved into services to augment their offerings. What can we learn from these experiences?

Citigroup has quietly declared defeat. In 2008, it became the first major American bank to experiment with mobile payments – using cellphones to buy products and transfer money. But the envisaged uses of this service, called Obopay, did not materialize. The technology is trivial, but consumers saw little need to pay their restaurant bills by cellphone, replacing cards and cash which are familiar, reliable, and easy.

What can we learn from this failure?

Citi seems to have embraced mobile payments like a bank, trying to force-fit an intriguing technology into existing applications. Organizations often err this way – look, for instance, at large solar energy projects being subsidized to generate power for the electrical grid, rather than in off-grid, small-scale applications. People initially viewed the telephone as competition for messenger boys. The examples are endless. ​What the bank found was that people used Obopay to meet other, unmet needs. Up to half of users were parents providing a weekly allowance to their children. Another big source of usage came from small business owners who did not accept electronic payments but wanted to replace cash. These were surprises.

Radical change is scary. A revolution in business model brings forth images of Robespierre and the guillotine. Understandably, companies are hesitant to move radically when there are more conservative options. Yet there are times when firms need to at least scope out how this change could occur, because they find themselves tied to the tracks with a locomotive fast approaching.

American health insurance firms may now be in just such a situation. Health reform threatens to wipe out traditional sources of profit – Medicare Advantage, individual policies, and small group insurance – while imposing many restraints on pricing and plan design. Moreover, it may lead to commoditization of these payers’ offerings, and do little to address the long-term cost increases which have employers aggressively cutting back on the coverage they provide. To add to these challenges, in just four years the law will push insurers to become far more consumer-centric than ever before if they are to compete effectively on the forthcoming health insurance exchanges. American consumers report that health insurers are the third least-trusted industry they deal with, just behind tobacco and oil companies. It’s bleak.

In this environment, I spent the day at a large healthcare conference full of insurance executives. One might expect a brew of intense discussion and deep reflection. Not so. An example of innovation lauded in the conference was how one firm re-designed their forms to have more plain English. This is of course a good thing, but not much of a new business model. ​We often see denial in the face of fundamental industry change. Pharmaceutical firms understood a long time ago that they would face a cliff of patent expiries around 2010, yet took years to charter new drug discovery programs, resulting in a substantial gap in their development pipelines. Oil companies are just now coming around to the realization that the electric vehicle is a major threat to their business. It is easy to find comfort in what our peer firms are doing, even when a gnawing feeling grows that we are all marching together to doom.